11 Foreign Words and Phrases

1 Borrowing and phonetic adaptation

As we saw in Chapters 2 and 3, English has always been a lan-

guage open to enrichment from other languages. Much of the discus-
sion in this book deals with words which, though not of Anglo-Saxon
origin, are not treated as “foreign” by speakers of English. The classical
vocabulary we have been analyzing has become assimilated into the
language, and though some of the words may have been unfamiliar to
you, their overall shape follows the patterns of English and does not
bear the mark of foreignness.
The adaptation of borrowed vocabulary to the native patterns is a
lengthy historical process. Having dealt with the morphemes and words
introduced in the more distant past, we now turn to some more recent
imports from various languages. The words we have included in this
chapter here have achieved a measure of currency in English. Like all of
the learned words discussed earlier in the book, many of these recent
loans are a recognizable component of an educated person’s vocabu-
lary and they can be encountered in non-specialized texts. On the other
hand, many of these items are still identified with the language from
which they were borrowed in orthography, pronunciation, or both.
Many of the borrowings from non-classical languages are relatively
new and their components, if any, have not become productive within
English. We will therefore not attempt to parse these words systemati-
cally into familiar building blocks. Nevertheless, in some cases it will be
useful to refer to the meanings of the components of a word or a
phrase, either to help you memorize it, or to help you with the meaning
of other words and phrases where the loan occurs.
Criteria for recognizing “foreign” words. It is difficult to define all the
criteria which separate accepted and assimilated borrowings from what
we call here “foreign” words and phrases. One good sign of foreignness
is the preservation of original source orthography that is in some way
distinct from the familiar spelling conventions in English. Seeing a
word spelled with an accent mark, letters, or letter sequences such as
<-ñ->, <ka-, ko-, ku-, kh-, kl->, <-tz->, <-zz->, <-sch->, <-ieux->, etc.

93
94 Foreign Words and Phrases

immediately signals that there is something distinct about that word.

Similarly, we are often aware that some sound, or sound sequence, in
the pronunciation of a word is distinctly un-English. The French
expression déjà vu, literally “already seen,” now used as a specialized
psychological term (see our list below), is a good illustration of for-
eignness in both spelling and pronunciation. The Spanish mañana
“tomorrow” or the Russian kolkhoz “cooperative farm” are also
marked as foreign in both spelling and pronunciation.
Earlier in this book we introduced some phonetic symbols used in
the International Phonetic Alphabet, the IPA, and we used those
symbols throughout to transcribe the pronunciation of well-established
lexical items in English. In what follows in this final chapter, we will
depart from our IPA practice. Instead, we will transcribe the pronunci-
ation of the foreign words in “imitation” English spelling. The reasons
we are doing this just here, and not elsewhere are two. First, in intro-
ducing IPA symbols in Chapter 5, we restricted ourselves to symbols
which are needed for the pronunciation of native English words.
Therefore, if we wanted to represent the foreign pronunciations
authentically, the IPA symbols that the reader will be familiar with
would not be sufficient to cover the rich variety of foreign sounds that
can be encountered in the donor languages. Second, the pronunciation
of many of the words borrowed from living languages will vary in
English depending on the familiarity of the speaker with the source
language. In other words, there is no established “standard” pronuncia-
tion for many of these words. We mark stressed syllables with capital
letters; the rest of the transcription should be transparent.
Odd spelling and pronunciation may not always be sufficient to mark
a foreign word or phrase, however. Another possible criterion for “for-
eignness” is semantic novelty. Recently borrowed words cover notions
that originate elsewhere; they often evoke associations with a special-
ized field, a particular culture, with social phenomena or customs
outside the English-speaking world. The German lederhosen, the
Yiddish kosher, the Spanish corrida, the Russian perestroyka, and the
Japanese shogun are words distinctly associated with the cultural and
political outlook of the societies in which these languages are spoken as
mother-tongues. By adopting these words in English, we enrich both
our vocabulary and our knowledge of other people’s customs and
views.
Most dictionaries mark the special status of unassimilated borrow-
ings by printing them in italics. Similarly, style guidebooks stipulate,
and publishers and editors expect, that such words and phrases should
be italicized or in some way stand out on the printed page. As with the
preceding vocabulary material in this book, the degree of familiarity
and currency of these words and phrases will vary. Some may be
 French 95

household words for some readers, others may be completely new. In

selecting the entries, we have mostly followed our own intuitions as to
what is still felt to be “alien.” If we pursue the legalistic metaphor, we
could say that they all hold a legitimate work permit within English;
some of them have achieved a permanent resident status, and some are
first-generation citizens.

2 French

You will remember from Chapter 3 that about 45 percent of an

educated English speaker’s vocabulary today is of French origin. The
most numerous additions of French words to the English word stock
came as a consequence of the Norman Conquest of 1066: more than
ten thousand French words were borrowed into English during the
Middle English period, the eleventh to the fifteenth centuries. Since
then, French has continued to be an important source of new words
and phrases in English. During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries
in Europe, French was taken to be the principal language of culture
and civilization. Because of that prestige, other European languages
including English borrowed large numbers of words from French.
Some of these earlier borrowings have been totally assimilated into
English and may not trigger a sense of “foreignness”: communism
(1843), chauvinism (1870), dossier (1880), blasé (1819), impasse (1851),
clairvoyance (1847). This is true of many words borrowed through
motoring and aviation early in the twentieth century: fuselage, garage,
hangar, limousine. The word associated with the re-definition of ground
transportation during the twentieth century, automobile, had been bor-
rowed from French in 1865. Its shortened form, auto is first recorded in
English in 1899; a measure of how soon and how thoroughly this word
was felt to be a native word is the proliferation of compounds with
auto- as their first element: autobus, autocade, autocar, autocourt,
automaker, automotive, automotor.
On the other hand, a fair number of French words and expressions
exist in English which have not been fully adapted to the native pro-
nunciation and spelling patterns. For most speakers, these phrases still
have an air of “otherness” about them. They can be perceived as
elegant and educated, and they are likely to show up in the writing of
individuals who seek to give a special elevated touch to their work.
They are sometimes heard in conversation, not infrequently coming
from individuals seeking to establish their social and educational cre-
dentials, or savoir faire, “know how,” of sophisticated language use.
The number of words and expressions one could list here is quite large;
we are only offering a sample of the most common such expressions.
96 Foreign Words and Phrases

au jus oh ZHOO, oh JOO (the final -s is not pronounced in French;

English speakers vary on this detail; the vowel is one which does
not exist in English at all) – literally “with the gravy” – served in the
meat’s natural juices.
au pair oh PEHR, literally “equal, even” – a person, usually foreign,
employed to take care of children and housework in exchange for
room and board.
bête noire bait NWAR “black beast,” means aversion, pet aversion, some-
thing dreaded or detested = bugbear < Welsh – originally hobgoblin
“bugbear, bogey” – collective for a creepy, crawly form of life.
coup de grâce koo de GRAS “stroke of mercy.” A death blow or shot
administered to the mortally wounded, a decisive finishing blow or
event, originally the blow with which a knight dispatched his fallen
opponent. Other coup, or “blows” are: coup d’état: “stroke of
state,” takeover, coup de force “a sudden violent action,” coup de
maître: masterstroke, masterpiece.
déjà vu de-zhah VOO, also de-zhah VYOU “already seen,” the illusion
of remembering scenes and events even though they are actually
being experienced for the first time. The medical term is paramnesia
[para “beyond, beside” +a+mn+es+ia] “memory disorder, beyond
remembering.” Recently the phrase has extended its meaning to
anything that is blandly and unexcitingly familiar, a repetition.
enfant terrible an-fan te-REEBL “terrible child,” originally, “a wild and
destructive child,” now: an excessively brash and outspoken
member of a group whose failure to conform may be a source of
embarrassment to the group.
faute de mieux foht de MYUR “for lack of anything better,” cf. also tant
mieux “so much the better.” Most commonly used abstractly, as in
“for lack of a better alternative,” “for lack of a better argument.”
gaucherie gohsh-REE “left-iness,” – i.e., as if done with the left hand, a
tactless or awkward act, crudeness, lack of social experience,
gracelessness.
idée fixe ee-day FEEKS “fixed idea,” generally an obsession.
joie de vivre zhwah duh VEEVR “joy of living,” an optimistic disposi-
tion based on the sense that it’s a joy to be living.
laissez faire les-say FEHR “let do,” doctrine that the government
should regulate as little as possible, especially in respect to business
and industry, a policy of non-interference, letting things drift
without direction or planning. The expression comes from the
teachings of eighteenth century French economists who advocated
that the people should be allowed to do as they wished.
neé NEY “born,” usually added to a married woman’s name to refer to
her maiden name if the two names are different. The masculine
form, used after pseudonyms, is né.
 Latin 97

noblesse oblige noh-BLESS oh-BLEEZH “nobility obligates”: the

obligation of honorable, generous, and responsible behavior and
actions associated with high rank or birth.
nouvelle cuisine noovel kweeZEEN “new cooking,” a combination of
healthy food preparation which underscores the natural taste of
the ingredients, the artistic presentation of the food on the plate,
and the small-to-moderate quantity of the food.
parti pris par-tee PREE “side taken,” preconceived opinion, prejudice,
bias.
pot pourri poh poo-REE “rotten pot” – a mixture of flowers, herbs, and
spices usually kept in a jar and used as an odorizer/scent producer;
a medley, miscellaneous collection.
précis pre-SEE or PRE-see, originally, this is the French adjective cor-
responding to precise in English. The noun précis preserves the
original meaning of the root cid, cis “to cut,” an abbreviated
version, a summary.
savoir faire sa-wahr FEHR “to know how to do” – the knowledge of
how to behave and what to do in various social situations.
tête-à-tête tet-uh-TET “head-to-head,” privately, usually just between
two people.
vis-á-vis veez – ah- VEE “face-to-face,” used metaphorically for “in
relation to, with regard to.”

3 Latin

Historically, Latin has been the most important source of

enrichment for the vocabulary of English. As pointed out in Chapter 3,
as much as 17 percent of our active word stock is directly imported
from Latin. The first Latin loans came to English fairly early – through
contacts between the Romans and the Germanic tribes on the
Continent before the fifth century A.D., through the adoption of
Christianity and the translation of religious and literary texts from
Latin into Old English. The trend continued through the Middle Ages,
through Medieval scholasticism, and during the Renaissance when for
many educated people Latin was an active second language. Even in
modern times, Latin has remained one of the most common sources of
borrowing. It was the language learned in high schools in the English
speaking world by almost every educated individual throughout the
eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and even well into the twentieth
century. Although that was not as true of education in America to the
same extent as in Britain, a good reading knowledge of Latin was
required for admission to most fields at America’s best universities until
about 1940. After 1945 the number of Latin words borrowed into
98 Foreign Words and Phrases

English has declined sharply, just as the teaching of the classical lan-
guages in public schools and universities has declined sharply. Still,
scholars have continued to turn to Latin when they need a new term for
a new invention: myxomatosis (1952), nuclease (1952), pesticide (1950),
video (1951). The borrowing of Latin words and phrases directly into
English has traditionally depended on specific contexts – legal, reli-
gious, scientific – and as that exposure diminishes, so does the rate of
borrowing.
Latin terms in common use. The majority of the Latin words and
phrases listed below have come into the ordinary language through their
use in specialized areas, primarily the field of law. You will find many
more of the legal terms in the Workbook chapter dedicated to technical
vocabulary (Chapter 12). Here we include only the ones that have
“leaked out” into ordinary discourse, along with some other words and
phrases that came directly from Latin in recent times. Some, like ad hoc,
are so common that we would hardly realize they are not ordinary
everyday English were it not for the odd spelling of hoc. Others like
carpe diem seem to have acquired more general currency lately, judging
from its popularity in recent films and on vanity plates. Others, like
recto/verso, are only appropriate in special contexts: manuscript studies,
paleography, printing, book-binding – you can’t use these words if you
are giving road directions. Finally, some, like advocatus diaboli and bona
fide have exact English translations; whether you use the Latin phrase or
its English equivalent will depend on register, style, your personal judi-
cious choice of the right word in the right context.

ad hoc “for this purpose,” anything constituted or put forward for a

single occasion or for a special purpose – unlike standing commit-
tees we can have ad hoc committees, which when they have met
their assignment are automatically discharged. Unlike principled
arguments there can be ad hoc arguments, which are arguments
without general applicability and therefore suspect.
ad hominem “to the person,” arguments not addressed to the issue but
to feelings about the character of the other person.
ad infinitum “to infinity,” referring to any series or events that seem des-
tined to go on without end, or at least ad nauseam, q.v.
ad nauseam “to nausea,” referring to a continuation of events that
seems repetitious, boring, and interminable to the degree of being
sickening.
ad rem “to the thing,” i.e., argument to the matter at hand, not irrele-
vant or far-ranging.
advocatus diaboli “devil’s advocate,” one who takes the opposite side of
an argument just for the sake of argument, or at least to see
whether the other point of view has any hope of success.
 Latin 99

bona fide “in good faith,” sincerely and honestly.

carpe diem “pluck the day,” a metaphor for “enjoy the day, live to the
full”: the enjoyment of the pleasures of the moment without
concern for the future; often rendered in English as seize the day.
caveat “let him/her beware,” legal warning to a judicial officer to
suspend the proceedings until the opposition has a hearing. It is
now generalized as a countable noun to refer to any expressed
reservation or caution, as in a contract or agreement; compare to
cave canem “beware of the dog,” a sign intended to warn intruders
to stay away.
ceteris paribus “other things being equal.”
cui bono “to whom good?,” i.e., who stands to benefit (e.g., who are all
those political action groups working for, anyway?)
deus ex machina often abbreviated to deus, “god from a machine,” orig-
inally an unexpected rescue out of a genuinely hopeless situation,
brought about in Greek drama by having a god descend on the
scene from a contraption called machina. Now the expression is
generalized to any illogical or miraculous situation where the
cavalry arrives in the nick of time; viewed as an unacceptable trick
in good fiction or drama because unmotivated.
et cetera, abbreviated etc., means “and other things”; the phrase – very
common – “and etc.” is an embarrassing solecism, since it means
“and and other things,” and demonstrates that the user does not
know what etc. stands for.
excelsior “still higher,” motto of New York ex + cel “from the hill, rise,
project,” compare excel, excellent.
in absentia “in absence,” e.g., getting a degree without being present at
the awards ceremonies.
in medias res “into the middle of things,” without introduction or
preparation, plunge right in.
in situ: “in position,” in the natural or original position.
in flagrante delicto, “while the crime is blazing,” in the very act of com-
mitting a misdeed, (caught) red-handed.
inter alia “among other things.”
ipso facto “by that fact itself,” by the very fact of something already
having taken place.
lacuna “a blank space,” a missing part, gap, hole, generally in an
abstract sense, like “a hole in the argument” or “a gap in the pre-
sentation”; the plural is lacunae.
lapsus linguae “slip of the tongue.”
lingua franca “French language,” referring in the Middle Ages to a
blend of Italian + French + Spanish + Greek + Arabic spoken in
the Mediterranean ports; now any of various languages (as
Swahili, Latin) used as common or commercial tongues among
100 Foreign Words and Phrases

people of diverse speech, any method of communication resem-

bling a common language.
magnum opus “a great work,” one’s major achievement; the plural of
opus is opera.
mea culpa “through my fault,” a formal acknowledgement of personal
fault or error; see also culpable, culprit, inculpate, exculpate.
mobile vulgus “movable crowd,” referring to the fickleness of the
masses, from which we get the word mob.
modulo “except for.”
modus vivendi “a way of living,” feasible arrangement, practical com-
promise, especially one that bypasses difficulty – a way of getting
along with another person or nation in spite of basic differences.
ne plus ultra “not more beyond,” i.e., the absolute peak of perfection.
nolens volens “willy-nilly.”
non sequitur “it does not follow,” a characterization of an argument
which is believed to be illogical; used as a countable noun.
nota bene “note well,” abbreviated NB, meaning “pay attention.”
obiter dictum “something said in passing,” ob “by” + iter “way” – by
the way; an incidental and collateral opinion uttered by a judge but
not binding, any incidental remark or observation, a side remark, a
digression, the plural is obiter dicta.
passim “everywhere, throughout, here and there,” as in a document.
per se “in itself, as such,” to the exclusion of other considerations or
external circumstances.
persona non grata “an unwelcome person,” originally used in the
context of international diplomacy.
placebo “I shall please,” treatment prescribed for the mental relief of
the patient rather than for its actual effect, a mild, soothing harm-
less pill containing no real medication, sugar pill, a pill having no
effect whatsoever except psychologically, see also complacent,
placate, placid.
prima facie “on the first appearance,” at first view, before closer inspec-
tion.
pro forma “as a formality,” i.e., doing something because it is mandated
by the rules, not because of the ambition to achieve results.
quid pro quo “what for what,” something given or received in return for
something else, “appropriate exchange,” used negatively: mutual
exchange of favors.
recto/verso right-hand, left-hand page; the page to be read first/the page
to be read second.
reductio ad absurdum “reduction to absurdity,” often shortened simply
to reductio. It refers to a manner of argumentation in which it is
shown that if the same premisses are pushed to their logical con-
clusion, the conclusion will be ridiculous.
 Greek 101

sic “thus, in this way,” usually added in a text after a grammatical or

spelling error in a quotation, drawing attention to the error and
making sure that the one quoting it is not perceived by other
readers as the culprit.
sine qua non short for conditio sine qua non, meaning a necessary condi-
tion – literally “without which nothing.”
status quo “state in which,” i.e., the existing condition, the current state
of things.
sub rosa “in confidence,” literally “under the rose” which doesn’t make
much sense unless one knows that for the ancient Greeks the rose
was the symbol of secrecy and confidentiality.
sub verbo “under the word,” abbreviated s.v., and most commonly used
in dictionary entries to refer the reader to another word under
which relevant information is to be found.
sui generis “of its own kind,” unique, peculiar, constituting a class
alone.
tabula rasa “smoothed or erased tablet or writing surface,” a “clean
slate”; more narrowly, a psychological term for the mind in its
hypothetical primary blank or empty state at birth before receiving
outside impressions.
verbatim “following the exact words,” word for word, the antonym for
paraphrase. Used in reference to exact quotations, as in “a verba-
tim quotation.”
vita brevis is short for ars longa, vita brevis “art is long, life is short”;
originally the ars in question was the art of healing (the original
quotation is from the father of western medicine, Hippocrates),
now extended to refer to the permanence of all serious forms of
creative achievement in contrast to the brevity of human life.

4 Greek

The number of borrowings directly from Greek, outside the

technical vocabulary of the medical and life sciences (which create new
terminology very commonly from both Greek and Latin), is much
smaller than what we get from Latin. The technical vocabulary of med-
icine is heavily based on Greek roots, and only slightly less so on Latin.
The nomenclatures of botany and biology are almost entirely based on
Latin and Greek. Entire books much longer than this one present the
relevant vocabulary which must be studied by specialists in those fields.
In the context of college life in North America familiarity with the
names of the letters of the Greek alphabet is taken for granted, and
some of them can be used metaphorically. Alpha, used as an adjective,
can mean “high-or first-ranking,” beta is the second place in a
102 Foreign Words and Phrases

classification system, an iota is a minimal, vanishingly small quantity of

something, and in the Workbook chapter on specialized vocabulary we
cover the transferred medical meanings of chi, delta, ypsilon. The six-
teenth letter of the Greek alphabet, pi, has been borrowed by mathe-
maticians as a symbol for the constant 3.14. The seventeenth letter, rho,
was used by nineteenth-century philologists who introduced the term
rhotacism; more recently the root rho was incorporated into another
linguistic term rhotic, an adjective describing a variety of English in
which the -r- sound is pronounced at the end of words and before con-
sonants. The C- or S- shape of the eighteenth letter of the alphabet,
sigma, has given us the words sigmoid “crescent-shaped” or “having a
S-curve,” sigmodont, sigmoidoscope. The last letter of the Greek alpha-
bet, the omega, has come to mean “the end,” as in the expression the
alpha and omega “the beginning and the end.”
Semantic transfer. Many characters, places, notions from Greek
mythology have made it into the common language through semantic
transfer; we listed some of them earlier in this book. Many more can
easily be added: aegis, agora, ambrosia, apostrophe, chorus, cynic,
demon, echo, giant, hector, hero, labyrinth, lesbian, nemesis, orchestra,
paean. In the common vocabulary of English one of the more reliable
criteria pointing to the Hellenic origin of a word is the spelling with
<-rh->: rhapsody, rheumatism, diarrhea, rhinoceros, rhythm. The
spelling with <-hy-> is also most frequently the Latin rendition of
Greek <-hu->. The latter spelling includes, among others, all the deriv-
atives of hydr(o)- “water,” hyena, hygiene, hymen, all the derivatives of
hyp(o)- “under” and hyper- “over, above,” hyssop, hysteria, etc. For
common words, it is sometimes difficult to decide whether a loanword
should be labeled “Latin” or “Greek,” since the Romans borrowed lib-
erally from the Greeks, and the multiple strands of the classical vocab-
ulary are inextricably tangled. The entries below are not of that kind –
they are all clearly “Greek.” As in the previous sections, our list will not
be comprehensive; we have been guided only by our own experience
concerning the usefulness, frequency, and familiarity of the words and
phrases listed here.

eureka “I have found it,” Archimedes’ cry as he ran naked from the
bath, having hit upon the principle of buoyancy which enabled him
to tell whether the gold crown of his king contained any baser
metal. His discovery led to the formulation of the principle of
flotation known as Archimedes’ principle. Eureka is the motto of
the State of California.
hapax, short for hapax legomenon, pl. hapax legomena “once read,” a
word or phrase recorded only once in a given body of text, a
unique attestation of a word or expression.
 Greek 103

heuristic hyou-RIS-tic “discovery through trial,” providing aid or direc-

tion in the solution of a problem; working out a solution by trial
and error. Both a countable noun and an adjective: we can speak of
“a heuristic,” meaning a particular set of procedures, or we can
speak of “a heuristic solution,” meaning a solution which is
arrived at by a series of closer and closer approximations. The
opposite of heuristic is algorithmic, referring to a procedure that is
guaranteed to succeed (e.g., an algorithm for determining all the
prime numbers – an algorithm which happens not to exist).
hoi polloi HOY-puh-LOY “the many, the general populace, the masses,
the common people”; hoi is the plural of the definite article.
Though most people are unaware of this, saying “The hoi polloi
are generally in favor of . . . ,” we are saying, “The the polloi are
generally in favor of . . .”
hubris HYOU-bris “away from proper behavior,” an act or disposition
characterized by insolence, exaggerated pride or self-confidence,
often resulting in retribution. The great Greek tragic heroes were
usually guilty of hubris, and it was the main cause of their down-
falls.
koiné coi-NAY, common or standard language, usually a dialect which
has achieved the status of a literary standard used as a lingua
franca among speakers of various dialects of one and the same lan-
guage. A koiné is valuable as a unifying factor in a nation or
smaller group, which is why koinés have been carefully cultivated,
even created, in many parts of the world; koinés can unfortunately
also be the cause for devaluation or even extinction of other
dialects and languages.
kudos KOO-dos “fame, renown, prestige, resulting from achievement,”
a singular noun. Phrases like “She received all sorts of kudos for
her performance,” make the word appear, misleadingly, to be a
plural form.
palindrome palin “back, again” + drom “run, course”: a word, verse or
sentence that reads the same backwards and forwards ELBA –
ABLE; ABLE WAS I ERE I SAW ELBA; MADAM I’M ADAM.
It is a word game item.
panta rhei “all things flow”; the observation that everything is in a con-
stant state of change, that all things are in a flux and therefore
nothing can prevent change, was first made famous by the Greek
philosopher Heraclitus (c.540–c.470 B.C.).
plethora pleth “to be full,” originally referring to a medical condition
marked by a florid complexion (excessive blood), now generally
referring to anything in overabundance, superfluity.
prolegomemon pro + leg, log “speak, write, study” – prefatory remarks, a
formal essay or critical discussion serving to introduce and interpret
104 Foreign Words and Phrases

an extended work. Essentially the same as a preface or a foreword.

The plural is prolegomena, which would be excessive if intended as
an introduction to only one book.

5 German

In spite of (or perhaps because of) two world wars with

Germany on the other side, English has borrowed relatively few words
from German into the ordinary lexicon that still retain their German
flavor, though there are numerous originally German words that have
been fully assimilated, like rucksack, protein, kindergarten, seminar,
lager, veneer, sauerkraut. The still unassimilated ones that are perhaps
best known are these:

angst literally “fear”; a psychological term denoting intense and trau-

matizing anxiety, discomfort, often also guilt, associated with the
conflict between man and society within an existentialist frame-
work. The term came in vogue around the middle of the century
and is associated with the philosophical and psychological schools
of Heidegger and Freud; most frequently it is used in the colloca-
tion existential angst, or in the compound adjective angst-ridden.
anschluss AN-shloos “annexation,” also “political union,” more
specifically the union between Nazi Germany and Austria accom-
plished by Hitler in 1938. Outside the European context, the term
can be used more broadly to mean “any improper agreement
involving occupation of foreign territories.”
blitzkrieg BLITS-kreeg literally “lightning war”; any offensive con-
ducted with great speed and force, “sudden and overpowering,”
the tactic of rapid and massive attacks, especially air raids,
intended by Hitler to result in quick victory over the Allies, also
used figuratively as in “she could not withstand the blitzkrieg of
germs.”
doppelgänger DO-pul- GAN-gur “double-goer,” a ghostly version of a
living person, also used to mean “a perfect likeness,” a “spitting
image,” which itself is a mispronunciation of spit and image.
echt <ch> = /h/ “genuine, unadulterated, authentic.” According to the
OED, George Bernard Shaw was the first to use the word in
English during World War I, in the phrase “echt Junker opinions.”
ersatz er-ZATS “fake, substitute, imitation,” it also implies inferior
quality. Ersatz can be used as the opposite of echt.
Festschrift FEST-shrift literally “celebration-writing,” it can also appear
in lower case: festschrift, the plural is Festschriften or Festschrifts – a
collection of essays written in honor of a prominent scholar usually
 German 105

marking an anniversary or an important period in that scholar’s

professional life.
führer FYU-rer “leader,” sometimes also capitalized; a neutral word in
German until Hitler proclaimed himself pompously the Führer of
Germany in 1934, following Benito Mussolini’s example –
Mussolini had called himself Il Duce “the leader” since 1922.
Führer can be used figuratively for anyone who demands and asserts
unrestrained authority and power the way the fascist leaders did.
gastarbeiter GAHST-AHR-bighter “guest-worker,” the compound con-
ceals the real nature of the “guest-working”: after World War II
the burgeoning German economy provided temporary, and not so
temporary, menial jobs for immigrants from Yugoslavia, Turkey,
Italy who did not have the privileges of German citizens. The term
was borrowed into English in the mid-sixties and has become a
synonym for cheap immigrant labor and lack of citizen’s rights.
gemütlichkeit guh -MYOOT-lich-kight cordiality, friendliness, coziness;
a strongly positive word, based on the adjective gemütlich, which
means “comfortable, cozy, good-natured.”
gestalt guh -SHTALT literally “shape, form,” a structure, configuration
or pattern so integrated as to constitute a functional unit with
properties not derivable from the sum of its parts.
gesundheit guh-ZOONT-hayt “health” (gesund = sound, as in sound
mind in sound body); it is the polite and friendly thing to say in
German when someone sneezes, the German for “bless you.” The
word is more wide-spread in those parts of the States where there
have been significant numbers of German immigrants.
lebensraum LEH-bens-roum literally “living space,” territory believed
especially by Nazis to be necessary for national existence or eco-
nomic self-sufficiency.
kaputt kuh -PUT “broken, destroyed, non-functional, out of commis-
sion”; the word was borrowed from German, which in its turn bor-
rowed it from French, during the nineteenth century. Today its use
is mostly confined to facetious or outright comic contexts.
kitsch KITCH a strongly derogatory word indicating decorations,
pseudo-literary compositions, or any form of art which is gaudy,
tasteless, pretentious, generally worthless.
lederhosen LEH-dur-HOH-zun “leather trousers,” in fact, leather
shorts, usually held up by highly decorative suspenders; the charac-
teristic Southern German, Swiss, and Austrian article of men’s
clothing that goes together with Alpine landscapes and yodeling.
leitmotiv LIGHT-moh-TEEF, also spelled leitmotif, “lead motif,” a
dominant theme, a recurrent musical or literary pattern character-
izing a composition, a novel, or the behavior of a character in an
opera or a literary piece.
106 Foreign Words and Phrases

putsch putch: a secretly plotted and suddenly executed attempt to over-

throw a government; the word became particularly popular in 1991
during the unsuccessful anti-Gorbachev putch in fragile post-
Soviet Russia.
realpolitik reh-AL-po-li-TEEK: literally “practical politics,” i.e., politics
based on practical and material factors rather than on theoretical
or ethical objectives.
schadenfreude SHAH-dun-FROY-duh literally “damage”+“joy” –
enjoyment obtained from the troubles of others.
sitzfleisch ZITS-FLAYSH: literally “sitting flesh,” the ability to engage
in activity which requires sustained concentration and persistence.
spritz shpritz literally “to squirt, spray” – to spray briefly, to dilute alco-
holic with non-alcoholic carbonated drink, compare also spritzer.
Now often pronounced with initial /sp-/.
übermensch YOO-ber-MENSH “super-man.” During the last two cen-
turies the word was first popularized by the German philosopher
Nietzsche who developed the notion of a human being who has
exceptional self-control, possesses enormous physical power, and is
capable of super-human creativity. The word was then discredited
by the Nazis who equated their notion of the superiority of one
race, the Aryan race, with the notion of übermensch.
verboten fur-BOH-tun “forbidden,” in English the word is mostly asso-
ciated with a sense of strong Prussian discipline, now appropriate
only in comic circumstances and contexts.
wanderlust literally “to wander, travel + desire, pleasure”: strong or
unconquerable longing, impulse to travel.
schuss SHOOS a sports term, a precipitous straight downhill run in
skiing, involving no turns to slow down the speed; also used
figuratively for any fast and largely uncontrollable downfall.
yodel YOH-dul a style of singing in which the normal singing voice
alternates with a falsetto creating an interesting fluctuating musical
effect.

6 Yiddish and other Germanic

Yiddish, a Germanic language with elements of its vocabulary

from Hebrew and from the Slavic languages with which it was in
contact in Eastern Europe, the Ukraine, and Russia, has provided some
useful and colorful words in English. Yiddish was officially proclaimed
the Jewish national language in 1903. Since Yiddish uses the Hebrew
script, transcribing Yiddish words in the Roman alphabet often allows
spelling variants; we have tried to record the most frequent ones, but
our list of alternative spellings should not be assumed to be exhaustive.
 Other Germanic languages 107

chutzpah also hutzpah HOOT-spah – supreme self-confidence, nerve,

gall. Ordinarily used with quite negative connotations.
goy, pl. goyim, also goys, from Hebrew goy “people, nation”; a non-
Jewish person, a gentile.
kibbutz, pl. kibbutzim, also kibbutzes; a cooperative settlement in Israel
based on joint ownership and sharing of the products of the col-
lective enterprise. A member of a kibbutz is a kibbutznik.
kibitz, also kibbitz to meddle, to offer unwanted advice, especially
someone watching a card game and making suggestions how to
play the hand; a kibitzer is a busybody, a meddler.
klutz an awkward person, usually also taken to be less than bright.
kosher “right, fit”; allowed to be eaten according to the dietary or cere-
monial laws of Judaism, extended to anything that is proper, legiti-
mate, acceptable.
kvetch, also kvetsch “to whine, to find fault,” and doing so in an annoy-
ingly plaintive voice; from German quetschen “to squeeze”; the
noun can be either kvetch or kvetcher.
l’chaim, also l’chay(im), lechaim, lehayim, lechayim from Hebrew “to
life,” a drinking toast, “cheers,” “good health.”
maven also mavin, mayvin, a knowledgeable person, an expert, a con-
noisseur.
mazel tov, also mazal tov, mazzel tov, “congratulations, good luck.”
mensch MENSH, the word means simply “man” in German; in
Yiddish it has been narrowed and elevated to a human being of
exceptional uprightness, a decent, honest, reliable human being;
though the original noun is masculine, it can now be used for
either gender
schlemiel shluh-MEEL , an individual of low reliability and not much
to admire in the way of manners, a bungler.
schlimazel shluh-MAH-zul , extremely unlucky person, the kind that
the American cartoonist Al Capp in the comic strip “Li’l Abner”
always portrayed as going around with a cloud above his head,
raining on him but not on anyone around him.
schlock cheap imitation, low quality, sleazy; cognate with German
schlag “a blow,” originally “broken merchandise,” then general-
ized.

7 Other Germanic languages

Other Germanic languages have continued to influence the

vocabulary of English, though the number of recent borrowings is
somewhat limited. Some of the words which have been borrowed
recently from other Germanic languages are:
108 Foreign Words and Phrases

apartheid a-PAR-tight Afrikaans, literally “a condition of being apart,

separation,” referring to the formerly mandated separation of
Africans and Europeans in South Africa.
berserk in Old Norse mythology warriors who fought with fury (bear +
shirt/sark), now “violently or destructively frenzied.”
man(n)ikin MAN-i-kin literally “a small man,” a word borrowed from
Dutch. The most famous manikin is the statue of the little boy uri-
nating in Brussels; the word can also be used to mean a model used
for teaching human anatomy. A variant spelling mannequin has
been borrowed into French and thence to English; a mannequin is
someone employed to model clothes; it is also the word for a model
of a human figure on which clothes are displayed on shop windows
and inside shops.
ombudsman, sometimes capitalized, < Swedish ombud “charge, com-
mission,” a person appointed to deal with complaints by individu-
als against public authorities; figuratively, any person involved
with arbitration between an individual and an institutional or
public grouping.
skoal Danish skaal, Old Norse skal “bowl,” now “drinking toast” used
along with “here’s to your health.”
slalom Norwegian – a sloping track, “a downhill ski race,” also meta-
phorically “a zigzag or winding course, marked by obstacles or
barriers.”

8 Italian

In Chapter 3 we discussed the influence of Italian opera on the

musical vocabulary of English. More generally, Italian is the language
which the great eighteenth- and nineteenth-century classical composers
found most suitable for expressing tempos and dynamics in their
musical notation. This includes words like allegro, largo, presto,
andante, adagio, crescendo, piano, forte, glissando, soprano, ritardando,
ritenuto, sostenuto, diminuendo, fortissimo, pianissimo, all of which are
familiar to musical cognoscenti, no doubt even to musical neonates.
But these are by no means the only words we have borrowed from
Italian. Others have come into English recently, including some of the
entries below:

bambino “an infant, a small child,” the feminine form is bambina: when
used in reference to a teenage girl or a young woman it can have
demeaning sexual connotations.
cognoscente KOG-nuh-SHEN-tee. pl. cognoscenti, a Latinized Italian
word based on the root √gn- “to know,” meaning a real expert,
 Spanish 109

someone who possesses superior knowledge and taste, usually in

some branch of the arts.
che sarà, sarà keh suh-RAH suh-RAH literally “what will be, will be.”
diva, pl. divas or dive, originally “goddess,” related to divine. Since the
end of the nineteenth century the term has been used for a leading
female opera singer, a prima donna.
dolce far niente DOHL-chay FAR NEE-ent-uh, literally “sweet doing
nothing” – pleasant relaxation in carefree idleness, compare the
word dolci at the top of the desert menu in Italian restaurants. The
root dol- < Italian, ultimately Latin dul- “sweet” should not be con-
fused with dol-, dolor- “pain, suffering.”
dolce vita DOHL-chay VEE-ta, literally “sweet life” – a life of indolence
and self-indulgence, a combination of luxury, frivolity, and licen-
tiousness; the phrase was popularized in English following the
international triumph of Federico Fellini’s classic film La dolce vita.
duce DOO-chey “leader” < duc “lead, pull,” see also under Führer above.
mafia literally “boldness,” name of an alleged international criminal
organization, usually capitalized when referring to the criminal
network based in Sicily. Now extended to apply to any malevolent
and lawless clique with a very rigid internal hierarchy and an
unbreakable sense of group loyalty, as the Russian mafia, the Labor
Party mafia.
numero uno “number one,” sometimes used humorously as a synonym
for “leading, first, top ranking, alpha.”
paparazzo, pl. paparazzi, a photographer who makes money from pic-
tures taken in violation of the privacy of celebrities; the circum-
stances of the death of Princess Diana reinforced the already
strong negative associations of this word.
prima donna, also spelled as one word, literally “first lady,” now also
used in negative contexts; prima donna behavior is the conduct of a
pretentious, arrogant, demanding person who expects special treat-
ment and privileges where such may not be well earned.
sotto voce SOH-toh VOH-chay “under the voice, under the breath,” in
an undertone, in a private manner, very softly.
viva voce VEE-vah VOH-chay “with the living voice, orally, aloud.”

9 Spanish

Spanish loanwords started entering the language at the time of

the confrontation between England and Spain in the sixteenth century.
Words borrowed then include those mentioned in Chapter 3: armada,
bravado, canoe, cocoa, Negro, potato, sombrero, tobacco, yam. In the
eighteenth and the nineteenth centuries, mostly as a result of contacts
110 Foreign Words and Phrases

in the southwestern U.S., English speakers started using words such as

bonanza, coyote, gaucho, lasso, marijuana, stampede, vamoose (from
vamos “let’s go”) and many more which are now part of our everyday
vocabulary.
Spanish geographical names. In the same area in the United States,
very large numbers of place names are directly borrowed from Spanish.
Starting from the name of California’s capital, Sacramento, from Las
Vegas to Los Angeles and San Francisco, Spanish place names dot the
maps of California, Nevada, Colorado, New Mexico, Texas, Florida. A
rich array of hagiographical names are also found in those regions: San
Andreas, San Bernardino, San Diego, Santa Cruz, San Gabriel, San
Fernando, San Marino, San José, San Juan Capistrano, San Luis
Obispo, Santa Maria, Santa Monica, Santa Rosa are all places familiar
to Californians. Some place names are distinctly Spanish sounding:
Buena Vista, El Cerrito, Los Gatos, La Jolla, (compare to the Texan city
La Joya, also La Joya in NM). Spanish words can be recognized in
various topographical, housing- and tourist-related contexts: adobe
“sundried brick,” alameda “a tree-lined promenade,” as in Alameda
County in CA. Fort Alamo has its name from the word alamo “a poplar
tree,” alcatras < Portugese alcatraz “a pelican, also the island on which
pelicans nest,” has given the name of the infamous prison Alcatraz.
Arroyo is “a stream bed, a gully,” as in Arroyo Grande, CA, Arroyo
Hondo in NM, bodega “a wine shop,” turns up in Bodega Bay north of
San Francisco, camarilla “a secret group, cabal,” compare Camarillo in
CA. From Spanish we also have the words canyon (Sp. cañon), loma “a
broad hill, a range,” compare Loma Linda, marina (also Italian) “a
promenade by the sea,” cf. Marina del Rey, CA, mariposa “butterfly,”
cf. Mariposa, CA, ocotillo “a spiny shrub,” cf. Ocotillo, CA, the word
patio, playa “beach” as in Playa del Rey, CA, sierra “a sawtoothed
range of mountains” as in the Sierra Nevada, salina “a salty pond or
marsh,” cf. Salinas in CA, and the name of the hotel chain Ramada
from the Spanish ramada meaning “an arbor, porch.”1
The current situation. According to current estimates, about 12
percent of the US population is Spanish-speaking, and Spanish is the
foreign language of choice for nearly 58 percent of high-school stu-
dents, as against only 28 percent choosing French.2 In spite of these

1
For the glosses of some of the Spanish words cited here, as well as for more examples
of early borrowings from Spanish into English, see the article by John Algeo “Spanish
Loanwords in English by 1900,” in Félix Rodríguez González, Spanish Loanwords in
the English Language: A Tendency towards Hegemony Reversal. Berlin: Mouton de
Gruyter, 1996: 13–41.
2
A series of studies published in the volume Spanish Loanwords in the English
Language, ed. González, explore various aspects of the Spanish lexicographical legacy
and presence in English. The figures cited here are from the editor’s Introduction, p.2.
 Spanish 111

large numbers, much higher in Florida and the Southwest, relatively

few words have entered the everyday English lexicon from these con-
tacts, for the same reasons that so few words entered English from
Celtic in the early history of the Germanic tribes in England. Three
that are recognizably Hispanic and widespread in the general English
lexicon are gringo, machismo, and Chicano (from Mejicano, pro-
nounced me-khi-KA-no; the ch- results from the American effort to
imitate the sound of -j- in Mejicano, since that sound does not exist in
English). As in the lists of words from other languages, in selecting
words of Spanish descent below, we have followed our practice of
avoiding terms for food and drink, which are quite numerous.

barrio literally “district, suburb,” but in English generally refers to a

poor Spanish-speaking immigrant neighborhood.
corrida short for “corrida de toros,” a bull-fight.
embarcadero “wharf ” or “quay”; the most famous one called by this
name in America is probably the San Francisco Embarcadero, now
mainly a tourist attraction near Fisherman’s Wharf, but a thriving
port until the early 70s.
gringo a Mexican-Spanish contemptuous name for Anglo-Americans.
hombre literally “man,” but as borrowed into English it has a strong
sense of machismo (see below) connected with it.
incommunicado “out of communication,” as in solitary confinement.
macho “masculine, vigorous,” but meaning ostentatiously giving the
impression of toughness and virility.
mañana “tomorrow,” but used in English mainly to mean “to put things
off yet another day.”
mestizo, fem. mestiza, originally the offspring of a Spaniard and an
American Indian, now generalized to refer to mixed blood gener-
ally, or to a full-blooded Central or South American Indian who
has adopted European ways.
niño “child,” referring to “THE child,” i.e., the Christ child, celebrated
during the Christmas season. The shortened form El Niño from El
Niño de Navidad refers to a complex body of weather phenomena
on the west coast of Central and North America generated by
unusually warm Pacific waters and often producing heavy rains.
The feminine form is el niña.
parador – a chain of inns or hotels in Spain, usually magnificently ren-
ovated historic buildings
pronto – “quick” – though the word is identical in Italian and could
have been borrowed from there through its use in music, the
American usage of it meaning “right away” was borrowed from
Spanish in the contacts all over the Southwest.
112 Foreign Words and Phrases

10 Russian

Geographically and historically, English has had very limited

contacts with the Russian language. The twentieth century, however, has
been a time of intense international contacts, friendly or otherwise, of
huge demographic shifts, of collapsing political systems, and the devel-
opment of transport and communication technologies which make
national boundaries vanish. Seventy years of communism in the Soviet
Union naturally gave rise to many concepts and terms associated with
the specific economic and political realities in the largest adversary of
the “West”; you will recognize the historical importance of some of
these items listed below. Included are also some Russian words which
are familiar from descriptions of Russian customs and articles of cloth-
ing. Finally, with the political changes at the end of the 1980s we have
become acquainted with some new political terms, though the major
direction of vocabulary transfer through the twentieth century, and
especially most recently, has been from English into Russian.

apparatchik literally “one who operates within a power structure”

(apparat), especially a political party – pejorative due to its associ-
ation with the communist regime, implying blind and strict obedi-
ence to the dogmas of a party political establishment.
babushka literally “grandmother, old woman,” in English changed by
metomymy to mean the kind of headgear elderly Russian women
wore traditionally, a head scarf, folded into a triangle and tied
under the chin.
dacha, also spelled datcha “a country house.”
duma, DOO-mah, also spelled douma literally “thought,” though the
word was extended to mean an elected governing body between
1905–1917; it has now been reintroduced as a synonym for “parlia-
ment.”
glasnost GLASS-nost literally “voicing, publicity,” with amelioration of
meaning: open and frank discussion of political and economic
realities initiated by Soviet President Gorbachev in the mid 1980s;
any such openness.
gulag GOO-lag, originally, an acronym for the Russian state agency on
labor camps, an ignominious term for a detention or labor camp;
the word was popularized in the West by Solzhenitsin’s famous
novel The Gulag Archipelago.
kolkhoz “cooperative farm”; membership of the kolkhozes was forced
on the Soviet farmers.
kulak originally “a miserly person,” an extended meaning of the literal
meaning of kulak “fist”;during the years of forceful collectivization
 Japanese 113

the word was used as a derogatory term for any landowner who was
opposed to the regime and was therefore regarded as a dangerous
class enemy.
mir “peace” – for most speakers today the word is associated with the
space station Mir, but, in fact, the word is a common Slavic root
for both “peace” and “world.”
nyet “no,” used almost exclusively in humorous contexts.
perestroika literally “rebuilding, reconstruction,” with amelioration of
meaning – the program of political reform in the Soviet Union
started by President Gorbachev in 1986, which resulted in the dis-
integration of the former communist regime in the country; any
such reorganization and rebuilding.
politburo “political bureau/agency,” during the communist era, the
chief executive committee of the Communist Party in the Soviet
Union and in other East European countries, a governing body
vested with almost unlimited power.
samizdat “self-publishing.”
samovar “self-boil” – a tea urn, usually a stately and stylish household
object.
soviet (as in Supreme Soviet ) literally “council, advice” – a government
body, council, usually hierarchized.
sputnik literally “co-traveller” – any of a series of earth-orbiting satel-
lites. The Russian suffix -nik “one who” has been borrowed from
Slavic into English and has produced beatnik, computernik,
filmnik, flopnik, kibbutznik, CIA-nik, MITnik, peacenik, refusenik,
stay-putnik, among others.
troika “a threesome,” originally a vehicle drawn by three horses abreast,
now used almost exclusively to refer to a governmental commis-
sion or administrative group of three powerful individuals.

11 Japanese

As many as 222 Japanese words have been recorded in English

since 1949.3 The recent ones include 16 culinary items, 25 business
items, 20 art words, 14 sports terms and 9 religious words. Some
Japanese words have been incorporated into English to suit commercial
interests including such words as walkman and pac-man.

banzai – originally a shout or cheer meaning “10,000 years,” the term

came to be known in English mainly through the suicidal attacks

3
See Garland Cannon’s study “Recent Japanese Borrowings into English,” American
Speech, 69.4. (1994), 373–97, Appendix 1.
114 Foreign Words and Phrases

of ground troops or aircraft by Japanese soldiers and airmen near

the end of World War II.
bonsai – an intentionally dwarfed plant or tree; the practice, highly cul-
tivated in Japan, appears to have started because of the scarcity of
land on the densely populated Islands.
haiku – a form of Japanese verse, or an imitation of one in another lan-
guage.
hara-kiri – ritual Japanese suicide formerly practiced by the samurai
warriors.
ikebana – a formal Japanese flower arrangement.
kana – Japanese syllabic writing, both hiragana and katakana.
karate – an unarmed form of Japanese combat using both hands and
feet.
kimono – loose garment, flowing sleeves, used as a dressing gown, fas-
tened with a sash.
kanji – Chinese ideographs used in Japanese writing; these are the
primary instruments of Japanese writing, supplemented by kana.
kabuki – traditional form of Japanese drama, highly stylized, all parts
played by males.
kamikaze – “divine wind,” originally referring to the wind which
destroyed an invading Mongol navy in the thirteenth century, now
referring to the suicide pilots near the end of World War II who
dived into enemy warships with their aircraft loaded with explo-
sives.
ninja – a hired warrior in feudal Japan who has undergone superior
training in martial arts.
origami – Japanese art of folding paper into elegant and complex
designs.
sayonara – “goodbye.”
shogun – hereditary commanders of the Japanese military forces until
1867, when the Mikado took control again.
tsunami – a tidal wave caused by a major undersea earthquake.
zoris – literally “straw” + “footwear,” originally thonged sandals with
straw soles, now soles of rubber or plastic or other materials.